Al-Sayyida al-Mu'iziyya, mainly known as Durzan, was the main consort of

Fatimid Caliph This is a list of an Arab dynasty, the Shi'ite caliphs of the Fatimid dynasty (909–1171). The Shi'ite caliphs were also regarded at the same time as the imams of the Isma'ili branch of Shi'a Islam Shia Islam is the second-largest br ...

al-Muizz Abu Tamim Ma'ad al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah (; 26 September 932 – 19 December 975) was the fourth Fatimid caliph and the 14th Ismaili imam, reigning from 953 to 975. It was during his caliphate that the center of power of the Fatimid dynasty was m ...

and the mother of the Fatimid imam-caliph

al-Aziz Abu Mansur Nizar (; 10 May 955 – 14 October 996), known by his regnal name as al-Aziz Billah (), was the fifth caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, from 975 to his death in 996. His reign saw the capture of Damascus and the Fatimid expansion into ...

. She was known as the first patroness of

Fatimid architecture The Fatimid architecture that developed in the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1167 CE) of North Africa combined elements of eastern and western architecture, drawing on Abbasid architecture, Byzantine, Ancient Egyptian, Coptic architecture and N ...

. Durzān also founded the second great Fățimid mosque of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, a congregational mosque (no longer extant) located in the

Qarafa The City of the Dead, or Cairo Necropolis, also referred to as the Qarafa (; locally pronounced as ''al-'arafa''), is a series of vast Islamic-era necropolises and cemetery, cemeteries in Cairo, Egypt. They extend to the north and to the south of ...

Biography

Durzan was born in the city of

Mahdia Mahdia ( ') is a Tunisian coastal city with 76,513 inhabitants, south of Monastir, Tunisia, Monastir and southeast of Sousse. Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as w ...

, on the coast of modern-day

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, in about 955, and was brought as a slave, or , to the

Fatimid harem The Fatimid harem refers to the harem belonging to the rulers of the Fatimid dynasty during the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt (909–1171). The harem was the quarters of the royal court in which the female members of the court, including the female r ...

. It is said that, because of her beautiful singing, she was also called ''Taghrid'' (). Although many Fatimid sources were destroyed, material evidence and literary sources exist that confirm the vastness of her patronage. In 976, Durzan inaugurated the first phase through the building of the Jami al-Qarafa Mosque with her daughter, Sitt al-Malik. As Cortese and Calinedri argue, this inauguration of the Jami al-Qarafa Mosque marked the first of the two main phases of Fatimid female architectural patronage. Durzan also sponsored a (palace), a bath, a watering pool and a mausoleum. Delia Cortese and Simonetta Calderini have noted Fatimid women’s patronage of public monuments and the link between piety – or religious propaganda – and charity during the delicate early stage of Fatimid rule. In 973 she moved to the newly established

to the court of the Caliph, where later she died in 995. It is said that when she died in Cairo, her daughter Sitt al-Malik mourned for a month.

References

;Sources ;Bibliography * *

Further read

* {{Cite journal, last1=Calderini, first1=Simonetta, last2=Cortese, first2=Delia, date=2014-01-01, title=5 The Architectural Patronage of the Fāṭimid Queen-Mother Durzān (d. 385/995): An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Literary Sources, Material Evidence and Historical Context, url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004279667/B9789004279667_007.xml, journal=Material Evidence and Narrative Sources, language=en, pages=87–112, doi=10.1163/9789004279667_007, isbn=9789004279667 , url-access=subscription Women from the Fatimid Caliphate 10th-century people from the Fatimid Caliphate People from Mahdia Fatimid dynasty Mothers of monarchs Slaves from the Fatimid Caliphate 995 deaths 950s births Women slaves 10th-century slaves 10th-century women Slave concubines